Five-Day Teaching with Writing Seminar

August 19–23, 2024
Deadline to register: August 14, 2024

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Since 2002, the annual Five-Day Teaching with Writing Seminar has offered UMN faculty members a congenial, retreat-like opportunity in which they can focus on course-relevant writing assignments, activities, instruction, and assessments.  Based on the premise that writing and text can be defined broadly to include verbal, numeric, figurative, and visualized modes, this seminar is appropriate for instructors across the University's curriculum. 

Each participant spends the week focusing on an individual course they teach. Together, we move through a sequence of half-day sessions, identifying course-specific learning goals and logistical exigencies, and, from there, considering modes of writing activity and instruction that support those goals and are both course-relevant and logistically feasible. From there, we look at, develop, and workshop writing assignments and activities as well as approaches to assessing student writing. By week's end, everyone will have...

By week's end, everyone will have...

  • Identified a subset of specific writing abilities they expect students to develop/demonstrate (because no one course can do everything!).
  • Designed (or revised) low-stakes and high-stakes writing assignments that stem from identified course goals and are appropriate to course venues (in-person, hybrid, online, large-enrollment, seminar-style, lab-courses, etc.).
  • Become familiar with strategies for providing students with effective, actionable feedback on their writing.
  • Considered a variety of approaches to assessing student texts (including peer response, contracts, and reflective self-assessment) in order to identify one that works well in specific course contexts.
  • Been given access to a site loaded with instructional resources.
  • Spent five mornings engaged in lively conversation with interesting colleagues from across the disciplines. We supply good coffee (and tea) every day.

Seminar venue: We'll meet daily, in-person, from 9:30 am–12:30 pm

Faculty members working and writing in a classroom

Registrants commit to the week: Because the seminar is intentionally designed to work from establishing course contexts, to identifying writing-oriented goals, to developing or revising writing assignments and activities, and ultimately to experimenting with modes of assessment), it won’t work to come and go throughout the week.

Registration logistics: This seminar is designed for faculty members and others who serve as lead instructors or instructors of record for the course(s) they teach*. Register by 7/30/24. The seminar is capped at 25 participants and requires a minimum of 20 participants.

*Those who assist with course design and instruction (e.g., TAs) are encouraged to register for the annual TA/GI workshops (8/28/24 and 8/29/24) and are welcomed to consult with a member of the WAC team about their interests, concerns, and ideas. 

Who takes this seminar?

Since 2002, the annual 5-Day Teaching with Writing Seminar has enrolled participants from the following departments: 

Academic Health Center | Accounting | Aerospace Engineering | African American & African Studies | Agricultural Education | Agronomy and Plant Genetics | American Studies | Anthropology | Architecture | Art | Art History | Asian & Middle Eastern Studies | Biochemistry | Biology | Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering | Chemical Engineering | Chemical Engineering & Materials Science |Chemistry | Chicano Studies | Civil Engineering | Communication Studies | Computer Science & Engineering | Construction Management | Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature | Curriculum & Instruction | Dental Hygiene | Design, Housing, and Apparel | Ecology, Evolution and Behavior | Economics | Educational Psychology | Electrical Engineering | English | Epidemiology | Epidemiology & Community Health | Family Social Science | Finance | Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology | Food Science and Nutrition | Forest Resources | French & Italian | Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies | General College | Genetics, Cell Biology and Development | Geography | Global Studies | German, Scandinavian & Dutch | Health Systems Management | History | History of Medicine | History of Science and Technology | Horticultural Science |  Industrial and Systems Engineering | Journalism & Mass Communication |  Kinesiology | Law | Linguistics | Marketing | Mathematics | Mechanical Engineering | Medical Laboratory Sciences | Medicine | Microbiology | Mortuary Science | Music | Natural Resources Science & Management | Neuroscience | Nursing | Organizational Leadership & Professional Development | Pharmaceutical Care & Health Systems | Rhetoric | Pharmacy | Philosophy | Plant Biology | Preventative Sciences | Political Science | Psychology | Second Language Acquisition Spanish & Portuguese Studies |  Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences | Social Work | Sociology | Soil, Water, and Climate |  Surgery | Theatre Arts & Dance | Veterinary Medicine | Work & Human Resources Education | Writing Studies | Youth Studies
 

Facilitator

Headshot of Matthew Luskey

Matthew Luskey,
Incoming Director, Writing Across the Curriculum

 

 


Questions?

Contact [email protected]